For the Average Teen

Friday, January 18, 2013

Excuse me! This is a book review and it's going to contain some spoilers so if you don't want to have the book spoiled for you leave now! Quick!

"One Hundred and Thirty-six Days Before."
And so begins Looking for Alaska, the story of a rather average guy named Miles Halter whose life is turned upside when he meets the stunning, rebellious and unavailable Alaska Young. His life, and the lives of those around him, are so irrevocably intertwined with this mysterious girl that Green sees fit to label the chapters after days that lead up to and come after an event that kills her and nearly destroys them all.

This is the type of book I love. From the moment I saw a small snippet of the story (a half-page photographed and put on tumblr) I was head over heels. How awkward and relatable the main character seemed to be! How odd that this coming-of-age story struck a chord with me. When I finally bought the book, I learnt that it wasn't "normal" in the sense that the main character was you know, super hot and popular, or lame then became super hot and popular and got the girl, it was in fact the opposite. It struck me how oddly comforting it was to find that the main character's flaws throughout the novel were similar to my own, and didn't have any of that usual glitzy gossip-and-sex feel to it.

"If people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane."
So why am I posting about a book on this blog? Because books like this describe me, the way Green forms his sentences speaks to my heart, and hopefully it will to yours too dear reader. He transforms this gawky teenage love story into something to empathize with. You laugh at the dumb jokes and cry at the sad bits and connect with the characters, because each is so human. The concepts explored in Looking for Alaska are time consuming, but in a good way. They help you to explore yourself and redefine aspects of your life you may not have noticed needed it before.